This new way of creating layouts works better
on this page, with the
tree dividing and blending the three images.
Yes, there were trees in approximately the areas on each individual photo,
but I took liberties.

Angra do Heroísmo’s
tight streets with the courtyard housing and winding roads fascinates me. I like living that way, and saw it growing up in parts of So Cal and Mexico, yet here in Oregon it is taken as an indication that you are not open to company, that you don’t like people. (I know this
from 20 years ago when I wanted to build a home like this in Oregon.)
Different cultures see these things differently.
I removed the cars from this image to see the path.

I can’t imagine living on
an island — the driver Southern California gurl wants to imagine that
I can drive 10,000 miles
if I want to take off but on an island you just go round and round. Still, this
island is my kinda place!

It is part of Portugal, but like Hawaii, is far away from its country — in the middle of the Atlantic.

And the Virtual Sketchbook group was started because I was on my back after a surgical mishap for nearly three months — I painted from images. It aligned me with people who can’t do “Urban Sketching” by wandering the streets, and so this is what we do (though I am also now back to “urban sketching”). Whether it is that you work a long day, are bed-bound, in a wheelchair, or paint at night due to insomnia (me), this is a forum for exactly those kinds of shares. We do the virtual travel together, wandering the area and sketching what we find. It is fun.